The Choices We Make
by Slytherin Redeemed
Summary: [DEATHLY HALLOWS Spoilers!] Albus Severus confronts his fear with a little help from his father and the Sorting Hat as his time to be Sorted into one of the four Houses of Hogwarts has arrived.


**Disclaimer**: _Harry Potter _is a series by J.K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, and all others who have brought Harry Potter to life, whether it may be in movies, books, audio readings, or even video games. There is no copyright infringement intended with the writing of this non profit work, written only for the sole purpose of entertainment.

**Title and Author**: _The Choices We Make_, by Slytherin Redeemed

**Fandom**: Harry Potter

**Summary**: Albus Severus confronts his fear with a little help from his father and the Sorting Hat as his time to be Sorted into one of the four Houses of Hogwarts has arrived.

* * *

**THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR  
**_**HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS  
**_**IN THE FANFICTION BELOW! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK  
AND WOULD NOT LIKE IT TO BE SPOILED FOR YOU, THEN  
****DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER!**

_Please _read and heed that warning.

**The Choices We Make**  
_By Slytherin Redeemed. Beta-Read by Vivian Allen. _

* * *

The Sorting was a long process. Albus Severus Potter shifted from foot to foot as he stood in the crowd of first-years standing in the gap between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. It was nerve-wrecking, really, and as the middle Potter child took deep breaths, he wondered if his father and mother felt like this when they were being Sorted; if _James _felt like this when he was being Sorted. He looked at the black-robed students around him, and relaxed slightly when he saw a familiar face; there was Rose Weasley, and she looked just as apprehensive as he did. He shook his head; he was going to owl his father first thing the very next morning, and he was going to ask whether or not it was perfectly normal to have butterflies in your stomach while you were getting Sorted. 

"Nervous, Potter?" a voice commented thinly from the side, and when Albus turned, he saw Scorpius Malfoy staring at him, gray eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised.

"What's it to you?" Albus whispered as another student was called up and promptly Sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Nothing, really," the Malfoy child answered truthfully with a nonchalant shrug. "Afraid you'll be Sorted into Slytherin?"

Albus nearly choked as he glared at the blond-haired child next to him. "What makes you think I'll be Sorted into _Slytherin_?"

Malfoy sneered at him. "I would have more respect for Professor Snape if _I _were you, Potter."

The middle Potter child flinched as he looked at Scorpius. He really _did _look so much like his father, Albus guessed, remembering pictures from the _Prophet_. "It's not that I _don't _respect Professor Snape, but—"

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

Scorpius threw Albus one glance over his shoulder as he walked up to the Sorting Hat, and then mouthed, "We'll talk _later_."

Albus frowned, green eyes darkening, but he realized that Scorpius—Scorpius _Malfoy_—had been called up, and the Headmistress was nearing the letter _P_, getting closer and closer to it by every kid that got Sorted. He wasn't surprised when the Sorting Hat boomed "SLYTHERIN!" the moment it had been placed on Scorpius' head, but he looked at the Malfoy boy in open-mouthed shock when the gray-eyed child found him, met his eyes, and nodded in his direction.

He chanced a sweeping gaze of the Slytherin table; they looked very uptight, most of them he assumed from Pureblood families—although Albus guessed they were the lesser-known families, because several of the more powerful ones had died out—and then there was Scorpius at the edge of the table, already chatting with someone Albus thought the Malfoy boy knew from somewhere else. Then he turned his head, and looked at the Gryffindor table. There was his brother, James, looking at him and giving him a large grin; there was Teddy Lupin, smiling at him and giving him a thumbs-up sign; and there was Victoire Weasley, and his cousin was also smiling at him.

The Potter boy took another deep breath as he closed his eyes; Gryffindor or Slytherin? Gryffindor had always been the "traditional" Potter house; his dad and mum had been in Gryffindor, his dad's dad and mum and his mum's dad and mum had been in Gryffindor, his brother was in Gryffindor, dang it all, even _Lily _was going to be in Gryffindor—and Albus knew that by instinct immediately. And Slytherin—Gryffindors had always looked at Slytherin as the dark, evil House. After all, Voldemort came from that House, and his lot of followers mostly came from it.

But despite Slytherin and it being stereotyped dark and evil, his father spoke highly of one of them. Spoke _very _highly of one of them. Back at King's Cross, right before he boarded the train with Rose, Harry had pulled Albus Severus aside. He had asked his father the question he'd always wanted to get an answer to—"What if I'm in Slytherin?"

His father's answer was patient, and Albus could immediately remember his father crouching down to meet his eyes. "Albus Severus," he had started his answer, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

Being a child, Albus protested quickly: "But _just say_—"

And Harry reassured him gently, "—then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it?" His father's following words comforted him, and Albus smiled in the memory of them, "It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."

"Really?" Albus had asked in wonder.

And his father said, "It did for me."

Slytherin didn't look _as _bad as it did when his father spoke to him about Severus Snape, but he thought about his brother, his sister, his _cousins_. What would _they _think if Albus Severus _Potter_—and it always came down to their last names, because Potter was a Light name, was a _Gryffindor _name—was Sorted into Slytherin? Would they turn away from him, like Uncle Sirius' family did when he was Sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin? Would they ignore him for the rest of his life and never treat him like family again? Or would they just accept it, like his dad said?

"Potter, Albus Severus!"

Albus looked up in shock, before he received a push from the back—it was probably Rose—and he started walking toward the Sorting Hat. There were more butterflies in his stomach, now, and he felt a little dizzy, but he made it to the stool, and the Hat made it on his head.

"_Nervous, are we, young Mister Potter?" _the Hat said to him, and Albus resisted a shiver; those were nearly the exact same words Scorpius Malfoy—who was staring at him intently—had said to him.

"_Slytherin isn't the worst of Houses, you know," _the Hat told him as it hummed quietly. _"Are you nervous about what your friends and family will think if I place you in Slytherin?"_

Albus was silent, but he gave a small nod anyway.

"_That's less Gryffindor, you know," _the Hat reprimanded him, _"because if you were really a true Gryffindor at heart, then the House you're in won't matter to you, would it? You heard me when I sang earlier. Gryffindors are _chivalrous_, are _brave_, and are _not _afraid. They face their problems and look them in the eye. _

"_But, look at you!" _the Hat continued to ridicule him. _"You're sitting on this stool with me on your head, worried about what your friends and family will think if a _Potter _is placed in _Slytherin_."_

Albus' eyes darkened, before he argued quietly, "Father said Severus Snape was probably the bravest men he knew."

"_Ah, Snape," _the Hat chuckled, _"the man was a fool. He _was _brave, but he was a fool nonetheless." _The Hat was silent for a few moments, before it asked him, _"What of Ravenclaw? Or Hufflepuff? Have you not thought about _those _Houses? Or were you simply to caught up in thinking about what consequences may come if you're Sorted in to Slytherin?"_

"I'm not _smart_," Albus Severus said to the Hat, "place Rose in Ravenclaw if you want, but not me. I'd only shame the House." He paused about the second choice. "And I'm not a Hufflepuff, either. Sure, I'm nervous and all about being Sorted into anywhere else but Gryffindor, but..." He finished lamely, and could not think of an excuse to eliminate Hufflepuff as a House of choice.

"_You're willing to do anything to please your family and friends, even if it's hard for you," _the Hat mused as it searched Albus' mind further. _"And you're willing to do whatever it takes to keep them happy. Not only is that Gryffindor selflessness—more recklessness, but that comes from your father, so it's expected—that's Slytherin _will_. You're willing to use that Gryffindor selflessness to protect those you love, but that selflessness isn't all Gryffindor; take a look at your father's best example. Severus Snape. Cunning and ambitious and _Slytherin _as he was, he set his own life on the line to protect your father." _It paused to take a breath,_ "Are you _sure _Slytherin is the wrong House for you, young Mister Potter?"_

"But wasn't sacrificing himself Gryffindor all the same?" Albus questioned.

"_Only the Gryffindors would let their name become synonymous with bravery and self-sacrifice," _the Hat commented.

His father's words came back to him. "_—then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al._" The reassurance strengthened the young child's resolve, and as words floated back to his mind—"_Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I never knew."_—he told the Sorting Hat, "I guess you know where to put me then, huh?"

Albus Severus could picture the Sorting Hat smiling brokenly as it whispered into his mind, _"I've known all along." _It remained silent for a moment, and then told the Potter child, _"It's the choices you make that make you who you are, Mister Potter. Your father knows that. _You _should know that as well."_

Then the Hat opened its mouth and bellowed, for all the students and staff to hear, "SLYTHERIN!"

_-fin-_


End file.
